India is a country that defies generalization. It is so big, so diverse and so overwhelming that its easy to come back with ones preconceptions simply confirmed. You think of India as an awakening giantwith world-beating companies? India hosts scores of futuristic technology parks with new skyscrapers spring-ing up like mushrooms. Youthink of India as a failing state that dooms its population to abjectpoverty? There is certainly no shortage of miserable slums, probably less than a kilometer from the gleaming technology park. Stupendous wealth and potholed roads jammed with sacred cows or rickshaws,deep spirituality and civil riots, world-class universities and malnourished children, its all there, easy to find, hard to ignore andimpossible to make sense of.These stupendous contrasts are of course reflected in the health care environment, which spans the whole gamutfrom world-class facilities to 3rd rate quacks. Still, after spending nearly five months at the Philips Innovation campus (PIC) in Bangalore and talking with health care providers, I believe there is a indeed a typical Indian DNAin healthcare that transcends most of the obvious differences.In this visitors report I want to share some ofmy insights on India and its health care environment. I have tried to keep the report as short as possible, a valiant attempt to summarize the flood of conflicting impressions I gathered about this fascinating country. I also added some observations on Philips Research Asia - Bangalore and its way of working. It is by no means a systematic study; rather it attempts to convey a kind of gut-feeling about India.